Melbourne, September 28, 2017 – The Online Hate Prevention Institution (OHPI) will officially launch the nationwide ‘Debate Without Hate’ campaign today. The campaign aims to support community cohesion and encourages respectful debate around the Same-Sex Marriage Postal Survey.

OHPI has created dedicated leading-edge software for reporting unacceptable and abusive online comments related to debate around the postal survey. The software is now live on the OHPI website and can be added to the websites of supporters. It will gather examples and statistics about the online content contributing to a 20% rise in demand for front line mental health support since the postal survey started.

The Debate Without Hate campaign will use examples of reported content to create articles highlighting where the line is being crossed. We invite commentary from advocates for the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaigns on these examples. We believe there is common ground that bullying and vilification of segments of the community should have no place in this public debate and we invite both side to work with us to combat and minimise the rising online hate.

Recognising the huge role social media plays in modern political discussion, and the lack of editorial control in this space, the campaign will mostly focus on the discussion and debate in social media. Statistics gathered from public reporting will be made available to media and the public at large. The archive of reported content will be available for academic and public policy research.

The campaign aims to support community cohesion by encouraging respectful debate around the same sex marriage postal vote. Regular online bullying can be detrimental to the mental health of many Australians, and it is particularly important for members of opposing parties and community organisations to come together to minimise the amount of online hate during the campaign period for the same-sex marriage postal survey.

We invite the media, advocates on both sides, community groups and mental health professionals to work with us to reunite Australians and reduce the risk of the harm.